


Malcolm at the Mike

by vanillafluffy



Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: Drinking, Gen, Karaoke, Work-Life Balance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-18
Updated: 2019-11-18
Packaged: 2021-02-08 07:03:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21471973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vanillafluffy/pseuds/vanillafluffy
Summary: For the prompt, "She never expected those two to share her love of karaoke." In which Dani runs into a couple of her teammates in the last place she expected. Otherwise knows as, Quick--I need another Tequila Sunrise to cope with Bright's choice of songs!
Comments: 14
Kudos: 32
Collections: Bite Sized Bits of Fic from 2019





	Malcolm at the Mike

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cornerofmadness](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cornerofmadness/gifts).

Tonight, Dani’s looking forward to letting off some stress at O’Ryans, a mellow Irish watering hole on the Upper West Side. It was a tough case--they spent yesterday and today tracking down a missing nanny and child--the nanny was butchered, but they recovered the child safely. Now, she needs a Tequila Sunrise, some Irish nachos (like regular nachos, but with potato slices instead of tortilla chips) and above all, tunes to sing.

Dani likes to think she knows every karaoke bar in New York City, although some are better than others, depending on who’s DJ’ing. O’Ryan’s has Ned pulling up the tunes, and he’s one of her favorites. She’s missed Happy Hour, but that doesn’t mean she can’t get happy anyway.

The server has just brought her nachos and her drink when the lights over the stage blink, signaling some hardy soul is about to sing. Dani glances that way, honestly more interested in getting solid food in her belly than watching anyone else. Solid food, a couple of drinks, then she’ll be ready to get up and bellow out something aggressive, Benetar, maybe, or some Katy Perry.

Then she gets a look at the duo on stage and she almost drops a glob of guac down her shirt.

Gil and Bright?! Impossible. If there are any two people in the Five Burroughs that she never expected to see on a karaoke stage, it’s them--but there they are. 

“God, I haven’t heard that in thirty years,” says someone at the next table as they start harmonizing to ‘The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald’. That has to be Gil’s idea--Dani knows it’s older than she or Malcolm is--but they obviously know it well. Malcolm’s voice is a little lower than Gil’s, a little smoother. They trade lines, showing off as the story unfolds. If she ever wanted a demonstration of how well they can work together when lives aren’t on the line, this is it.

There’s applause from the crowd as they finish the ballad, more than the perfunctory clap-clap-clap most performances get.

On impulse, Dani stands and waves as Malcolm climbs down from the stage. Gil is off talking to Ned, but Malcolm heads her way and smiles in recognition. “Hey, Dani--I wasn’t expecting to see you here! Gil didn’t mention he’d asked you.”

“He didn’t,” she says dryly. “I’m a regular. I didn’t know you guys sang together.”

Bright grins, looking boyish. “Oh, sure. Since I was a kid and we were piddling around in his garage working on his Pontiac. Just singing along with the radio, but one thing led to another, and we started doing karaoke. Mind if we join you?”

If she’d thought about it, Dani would’ve expected Bright to be a wine connoisseur, or maybe, just maybe, an aficionado of craft beer. When Gil comes to the table with a pitcher of draft, though, Malcolm doesn’t hesitate to pour himself a glass.

“Here’s to letting off steam,” Gil says, lifting his pilsner, and the coworkers clink their glasses and drink. “Better drink up, Malcolm. You’re on in twenty.”

“You didn’t.” Malcolm is horrified. She’s seen him standing over bodies and not look so pale.

“Your old favorite. Come on, it’ll be fun.”

“Oh God, no. It was cute before I hit puberty,” he moans, “but now it’s just ridiculous.”

Gil is grinning and Dani catches his eye. He winks. “We ought to do this more often,” he suggests. “Office karaoke. Get JT and maybe Edrisa and make a party of it.”

Dani doesn’t mention that she’s run into JT doing karaoke, though not here. He probably wouldn’t appreciate being forced to socialize with Bright. She encountered him once at a country bar out on Staten Island...she tries to imagine the team’s reaction to seeing the burly detective crooning, ‘Mama Told Me There’d Be Days Like This’.

Malcolm clearly has no objection to ordinary beer. By the time Gil’s deadline is up, they’re down to the bottom of the first pitcher, and he’s wobbling slightly as he makes his way to the stage.

“This one was a lot more effective before his voice broke,” Gil comments, suppressing laughter. “The song made him laugh, and in those days, he didn’t laugh much. But we hung out together, working on my car, listening to the oldies station and singing along and that helped him loosen up.”

The speakers echo with a tinkly piano intro…it sounds vaguely familiar, saccharine….

She doesn’t recognize it until Malcolm warbles, “Muskrat, muskrat, candlelight, doin’ the town and doin’ it right-”, then she chokes on her Tequila Sunrise. “You’re evil,” she says to Gil, who just grins as his protege belts out ‘Muskrat Love’, complete with jitter-bugging and shimmy.

Hmm…if this is a regular part of Bright’s repertoire, maybe she’ll try to get JT to join them next time after all….

...


End file.
